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Czechoslovakia's Movement Toward a New Constitution: the Challenge of Establishing a Democratic, Multinational State

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Czechoslovakia's Movement Toward a New Constitution: the Challenge of Establishing a Democratic, Multinational State NYLS Journal of International and Comparative Law Volume 13 Number 1 Article 5 1992 CZECHOSLOVAKIA'S MOVEMENT TOWARD A NEW CONSTITUTION: THE CHALLENGE OF ESTABLISHING A DEMOCRATIC, MULTINATIONAL STATE Roberta Barbieri Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.nyls.edu/ journal_of_international_and_comparative_law Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation Barbieri, Roberta (1992) "CZECHOSLOVAKIA'S MOVEMENT TOWARD A NEW CONSTITUTION: THE CHALLENGE OF ESTABLISHING A DEMOCRATIC, MULTINATIONAL STATE," NYLS Journal of International and Comparative Law: Vol. 13 : No. 1 , Article 5. Available at: https://digitalcommons.nyls.edu/journal_of_international_and_comparative_law/vol13/iss1/ 5 This Notes and Comments is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@NYLS. It has been accepted for inclusion in NYLS Journal of International and Comparative Law by an authorized editor of DigitalCommons@NYLS. CZECHOSLOVAKIA'S MOVEMENT TOWARD A NEW CONSTrUTION: THE CHALLENGE OF ESTABLISHING A DEMOCRATIC, MULTINATIONAL STATE I. INTRODUCTION In June 1990, the people of Czechoslovakia, after experiencing over forty years of Communist dictatorship,I elected a democratic government. 2 The new government was charged with the task of formulating a new Constitution within two years. 3 This goal proved to be unattainable. As a result, in June 1992, following a subsequent round of elections, the division of Czechoslovakia into two separate countries appeared inevitable.4 This note will focus on Czechoslovakia's struggle to meet the challenge of creating a constitutional system capable of preserving its national structure and providing sufficient autonomy to the Slovak population. The dissolution of Czechoslovakia is in no small part due to the fact that the considerable cultural and economic differences between Czechs and Slovaks that have existed during the period immediately following the First World War,5 when the country formulated its last democratic constitution, 6 have not diminished.7 This outcome is nonetheless regrettable for there were significant factors that distinguished the present political reality from the past, such as the 1969 transformation of the Czechoslovak constitutional system from a unitary to a federal government.' Also, Vaclav Havel, the president of Czechoslovakia until 1. The Velvet Hangover, HARPER'S, Oct. 1990, at 18 (Speech given in July 1990 by Vaclav Havel at the opening of the Salzburg Festival in Australia). 2. Id.; see also Robin Knight et al., Prague'sDay-Glo Revival, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, June 11, 1990, at 45. 3. LIDOVA DEMOKRACii, Aug. 18, 1990, translated and reprinted in Pithart on Tripartite Government Meeting, FBIS-EEU-90-164, Aug. 23, 1990, at 11. 4. Czechs and Slovaks Say They Plan Split, N.Y. TIMES, June 20, 1992, §1, at 3 [hereinafter Split]. 5. Joseph S. Roucek, Czechoslovakia's Minorities, in CZECHOSLOVAKIA 184 (Robert J. Kerner ed. 1949). 6. DOROTHEAEL MALLAKH, THE SLOVAK AUTONOMY MOVEMENT, 1935-1939: A STUDY IN UNRELENTING NATIONALISM 35 (1979). 7. Knight, supra note 2, at 45; William E. Schmidt, Czechs Right, Slovaks Left, N.Y. TIMES, June 8, 1992, at A7. 8. CAROL. S. LEFF, NATIONAL CoNFLIcr IN CZECHOSLOVAKIA: THE MAKING AND REMAKING N.Y.L. SCH. J. INT'L & COMP. L. [Vol. 13 July 1992, understood the need of the Slovak people to preserve their separate identity. 9 While the strictly centralist constitution of 192010 embittered the Slovaks"1 and divided the nation, 2 the new constitution promised to provide greater political self-expression to the Slovak people. This was illustrated by the power-sharing bill that was passed by the Federal Assembly in December 1990. It gave more authority to the Slovak republic after its premier threatened to leave the federation.13 However, ultimately, the modern Czechoslovak republic, like interwar Czechoslovakia, was a victim of the dominant trends of its time. The Czechoslovak Constitution of 1920 was a product of the nineteenth century idea of a strong, centralist, uninational state.14 Similarly, the failure of the democratic government of Czechoslovakia to develop a constitution must be viewed within the larger European context. At the present time, a parochial nationalism is undermining the concept of a united federal western Europe, as well as causing turmoil and bloodshed in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.15 This scenario discouraged the development of a Czechoslovak constitution that established a federal, multinational state and at the same time preserved the larger structure of the nation. IU. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND The Czechs and Slovaks are the descendants of Slavic tribes16 that were united under the rule of the Moravian Empire in the ninth century A.D. 17 At that time there were no significant national distinctions between OF A STATE, 1918-1987, at 121 (1988); EUGEN STEINER, THE SLOVAK DILEMMA 197 (1973). 9. Vaclav Havel's New Year's Address, 34 ORBIs: J. WORLD AFF. 253, 259 (1990). 10. EL MALIAMH, supra note 6, at 35. 11. LEFF, supra note 8, at 63; JOSEPH KORBEL, TWENTIETH CENTURY CZECHOSLOVAKIA: THE MEANINGS OF ITS HISTORY 101 (1977). 12. JozEF LErrRIcH, HISTORY OF MODERN SLOVAKIA 58 (1955); LEFF, supra note 8, at 63. 13. John Tagliabue, Conflicts Defused in Czechoslovakia, N.Y. TIMES, Dec. 13, 1990, at All. 14. See HANUS J. HAJEK, T.G. MASARYK REVISrrED: A CRITICAL ASSESSMENT 158-59 (1983); E. GARRISON WALTERS, THE OTHER EUROPE: EASTERN EUROPE TO 1945, at 151 (1988). 15. Conor C. O'Brien, Pursuing a Chimera-Nationalismat Odds with the Idea of a Federal Europe, THE TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT (London), Mar. 13, 1992, at 3-4; Jacques Attali, Europe's Descent into Tribalism, NEW PERSP. Q., Fall 1992, at 38. 16. See s. HARRISON THOMSON, CZECHOSLOVAKIA IN EUROPEAN HISTORY 7-9 (1965); see also ALEXANDER KUNOSI, THE BASIS OF CZECHOSLOVAK UNITY 13 (194). 17. THOMSON, supra note 16, at 10-11; KUNOSI, supra note 16, at 13. 19921 CZECHOSLOVAKIA 'S NEW CONSTITUTION Czechs and Slovaks. 8 Then, in the early part of the eleventh century, the Magyar tribes invaded the southeastern part of the empire.19 The people in the eastern and western areas of the former Moravian Empire were to remain separated for almost one-thousand years.2" As a result of this separation, the peoples in the two regions developed cultures that were markedly different." The western, or Czech, area was heavily influenced by German and Western culture.22 The Czechs became cosmopolitan23 and their land was eventually thoroughly industrialized.' During the early fifteenth century, the Czechs became staunch adherents of the ideas of John Hus, the Czech religious reformer 26 who was burned at the stake by the Catholic Church.27 While the Hapsburgs technically re-Catholicized the Czechs 28 after subjugating them in the early seventeenth century, 29 the Czechs were Catholic only in a nominal sense.3" They identified Catholicism with the Hapsburgs, who had taken their independence from them.3' The figure of Hus remained very much alive in the national consciousness of the Czech people. 2 During the nineteenth century, the Czechs' movement towards 18. THOMSON, supra note 16, at 11. 19. Id. at 11-12. 20. THOMSON, supra note 16, at 12-13; KUNOSI, supra note 16, at 15; Roucek, supra note 5, at 184-85. 21. See Roucek, supra note 5, at 184-85. 22. See WALTERS, supra note 14, at 124; see THOMSON, supranote 16, at 14-15; see Roucek, supra note 5, at 185. 23. See Roucek, supra note 5, at 185. 24. Id.; WALTERS, supra note 14, at 36; LEFF, supra note 8, at 12; ZBYNEK ZEMAN, THE MASARYKS: THE MAKING OF CZECHOSLOVAKIA 128 (1976). 25. THOMSON, supra note 16, at 84-86; WALTERS, supra note 14, at 30; EL MALLAKH, supra note 6, at 14. 26. THOMSON, supra note 16, at 77-80; WALTERS, supranote 14, at 30; EL MALLAKH, supra note 6, at 14. 27. THOMSON, supra note 16, at 84. 28. CECIL J. C. STREET, PRESIDENT MASARYK 50-52 (1930). 29. See THOMSON, supra note 16, at 111-13; EL MALLAKH, supranote 6, at 14; WALTERS, supra note 14, at 30. 30. Roucek, supra note 5, at 185. 31. See id.; see also EL MALLAKH, supra note 6, at 14. 32. See TOMAS G. MASARYK, THE MEANING OF CZECH HISTORY 10 (1974); RuDoLF SCHLESINGER, FEDERALISM IN CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE 299 (1945); JOHN F. N. BRADLEY, CZECH NATIONALISM IN TiE NINETEENTH CENTURY 92 (1984); LEFF, supra note 8, at 20; EL MALI.AKH, supra note 6, at 14. N.Y.L. SCH. J. INT'L & COMP. L. [Vol. 13 nationalism was gaining strength.33 Czech patriots, including Thomas Masaryk, later to become the first president of Czechoslovakia,34 looked towards Hus and his beliefs as a model for a democratic national tradition.35 The people in the eastern area, which became known as Slovakia,36 developed contrasting attitudes. 37 The Slovaks were influenced by the more eastern Magyar culture.38 They were much more conservative than the Czechs, 39 and their society remained agrarian.' In addition, they were strictly Roman Catholic.41 These differences not only gave the Slovaks a sense of a separate identity,42 but led to dissension within the new state after the First World War at a time when this identity was ignored by the leadership in Prague.43 During the First World War, when Czechs and Slovaks were together fighting the Austro-Hungarian Empire," it appeared as if both peoples could live in one country under a federal government.45 In October 1915, Czech and Slovak organizations signed an agreement in Cleveland, Ohio.46 This document called for the independence of the Czech lands and Slovakia.47 It also demanded "the unity of the Czech and Slovak nation in a federal state with total national autonomy for Slovakia, with its own parliament, state administration, complete cultural freedom, the full use of the Slovak language."" 33.
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